Eminent Domain Report

 Here's a few updates on eminent domain-related issues taking place in California this week:

• City of Covina Condemnation:  According to an article in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Covina using eminent domain to take property from Alhassen-controlled company, the City of Covina has filed an eminent domain action to acquire a vacant, half-acre property owned by West Covina-based developer Ziad Alhassen.  The City intends to utilize the property for parking for police department employees and County firefighters.  The condemnation action was necessary after the City and the owner ...

Six years ago, the US Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Kelo v. City of New London, affirming the government's ability to exercise eminent domain for purely economic purposes.  The public backlash and media firestorm surrounding the decision turned our quirky group of eminent domain attorneys into rock stars for a short moment in time.  Ms. Kelo's battle was put to print in Jeff Benedict's Little Pink House:  A True Story of Defiance and Courage, and it now appears the infamous case is making its way to your television. 

According to a Hartford Courant article

It's not often a film comes out dealing with eminent domain issues.  You may remember when Avatar came out, my partner Rick Rayl and our esteemed colleague Gideon Kanner had a nice back-and-forth spar about whether the film had anything to do with eminent domain.  (Rick ended up buying Professor Kanner a movie ticket in the hopes of changing his mind.)  

Well, there can be no dispute about the eminent domain context in the recent documentary "Battle for Brooklyn," which follows a man's fight to save his Atlantic Yards neighborhood from condemnation for the New Jersey Nets' new basketball ...